Past

While the Cold War in Eastern Europe is in a geographic and even historic sense a long way from here, its legacy is global and relevant. Then, as now, entrenched social, cultural, and political systems were subverted from below and within.

The unblinking eye over today’s conflict zones has its origins in the surveillance technology that emerged in the Cold War-era as a dutiful aid to intelligence operatives, those individuals who assimilated themselves into the culture of their enemy and passed along secrets. Western agencies were watching the east as under the watchful eye of the KGB, the USSR created a particularly sinister climate of fear and political oppression. Yet the KGB, which employed one agent per 583 Soviet citizens, was dwarfed in its efforts by the East German model in which one Stasi agent observed 166 individuals.

As a part of The Wende Museum’s SURVEILLANCE PROJECT, Behind the Berlin
Wall brings together street artists from Los Angeles, London, and Berlin
to interpret the role of surveillance in our lives from the Cold War
until today. The murals by Retna, D*Face, and artist duo Herakut, cover
nine segments belonging to the ‘east side’ of the original Berlin Wall –
the side that faced the East German death strip and was never painted.
In keeping with the Wall’s original function as an organic,
ever-changing site for art happenings, these artists offer a commentary
on the eroding space of the private individual operating in a public
place that uses technology as an agent of social control.

British
Consul-General Dame Barbara Hay and former U.S. Ambassador Rudolf V. Perina shared their stories about the joys as well as difficulties of life as expatriates
and diplomats, their adjustments to the culture of Moscow, and their contacts
with other diplomats, state officials, dissidents, journalists and average citizens.
Moderated by UCLA History Professor J. Arch Getty, this conversation touched
upon the challenges that foreign diplomats faced during the Cold War, the
culture and institutional framework in which they had to operate and how they remained
discrete, cheerful, flexible and smart as the politics and leadership kept
changing at home, abroad and ‘in the office.’

The Wende Museum launched Breaking Stalin’s Nose,
the debut novel by Eugene Yelchin, St. Petersburg-born and Los
Angeles-based artist and author. The Museum also presented an
exhibition of the artist’s dramatic graphite illustrations for the book.

To mark the 20th anniversary of German
reunification in October 2010, The Wende Museum hosted an advanced, rough-cut screening of the
documentary film One Germany: The
Other Side of the Wall, produced by Gabriele Hayes and directed by Mark Hayes with support from
The Wende Museum. The film explores the
ongoing cultural impact of Germany’s reunification in 1990.

On April 12, 1961, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin's groundbreaking 108-minute voyage around the Earth on the Vostok 1 rocket captured the entire world's fascination with space as the next frontier. His voyage with the Cedar call sign (referring to a Siberian pine) made Gagarin into a national hero. His flight was a landmark victory in a Space Race that served as a key ideological site for Cold War confrontation.

To mark the 20th anniversary of German
reunification in October 2010, The Wende Museum hosted an advanced, rough-cut screening of the
documentary film One Germany: The
Other Side of the Wall, produced by Gabriele Hayes and directed by Mark Hayes with support from
The Wende Museum. The film explores the
ongoing cultural impact of Germany’s reunification in 1990.

The film will be screened again in Berlin on Wednesday, October 12 at 8 PM at Filmkunst 66, Bleibtreustrasse 12, 10623 Berlin.

Contemporary American artist Lawrence Gipe spoke with Andrew Jenks, associate professor of History, California State University, Long Beach about the appropriation of and fascination with Soviet myths and icons in contemporary art and culture.

The
German Democratic Republic, founded in October 1949, invested considerable
energy in its international relations. At first only recognized by the Eastern
bloc states, the People's Republic of China and Korea, the GDR launched an
initiative in the 1950s to establish diplomatic relations with countries in
other parts of the world, especially in Africa, the Middle East and East Asia.

The project “The Berlin Wall
as a symbol of the Cold War: from an instrument of the SED’s domestic policy to
an architectural monument of international significance” aims to document
the remnants of the border installation from between 1961 and 1989/1990 as well
as about 120 Berlin Wall memorials erected in many countries around the world.

Join Leo Schmidt, the head of this project at the Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus, in a discussion about
this new Geographic Information System at UCLA and an informal talk on the
Berlin Wall as a place of cultural significance and a potential World Heritage
site at The Wende Museum.

In the exhibition Traces of Division/Signs of Unity, material artifacts and fragments offered a glimpse into East German culture, the dissolution of the GDR and the vote for unification in March 1990. These artifacts represent images and icons that once inhabited public and private spaces, while also offering insight into the transformation of East German culture during the time between 1989 and 1990.

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